It is known that people wear shoes and clothing mainly to protect themselves from weather and the cold.
Depending on the external temperature and on the environmental conditions, it is necessary to resort to various “layers” of clothing in order to adapt the body to the surrounding environment.
This protection system allows, in particular, to easily adapt the body to the thermal variations that can occur simply by adding or removing one or more layers of clothing.
The human body inherently has a series of “mechanisms” that allow it to adapt thermally to the surrounding environment.
In case of overheating, the body, in fact, reacts by increasing perspiration, which by evaporating ensures a natural lowering of the temperature of the body.
However, if the water vapor is unable to escape from the layers of clothing in which the human body is wrapped, humidity increases and the vapor condenses, returning to the liquid state of perspiration and thus wetting the clothes starting from the ones that constitute the first layer (underwear).
The only solution to this drawback is to replace as quickly as possible the wet item with a dry one, with the risk, however, of subjecting the body to sudden chilling.
A breathable item of clothing has recently been devised which is disclosed in Italian Patent Application PD99A000149 of Jul. 6, 1999 and in the corresponding WO 01/01803 A1 and comprises a protective outer enclosure with an internal layer that affects at least part of the extension of said outer enclosure and defines internally an interspace.
The inner layer has, at least at the regions of the human body where sweat forms most abundantly, holes for access to said interspace for the vapor produced by sweating.
The inner layer and the outer enclosure have, in the top regions of the item, holes for the evacuation of the vapor that is conveyed by a “stack effect” inside said interspace, combined with means that hold out water, impurities or other substances.
The means that hold out water is constituted by a membrane that is permeable to vapor and/or air, impermeable to water, arranged in the upper regions where the vapor exit holes are formed, and interposed between said outer enclosure and said inner layer.
As an alternative, the means that hold out the water is constituted by a ventilation element that is provided with means for fixing to the fabric of an item of clothing at an appropriately provided opening.
The ventilation element has, at the part to be arranged externally, an orientation that slopes from the center toward the peripheral region and a top opening.
An external protective dome, raised substantially from the ventilation element, is fixed perimetrically thereto and has, in a position other than the central one, at least one hole that is not aligned with the central opening.
Although said means that hold out water have been found to be functional, even in the other embodiments disclosed in Italian Patent Application PD99A000149 of Jul. 6, 1999 and in the corresponding WO 01/01803 A1, they have been found to have drawbacks, including difficulties in manufacture and/or production, but most of all their resulting or inherent color is hardly comparable to the color of the item, and this causes considerable problems in terms of visual impact, which is fundamental for marketability.
An equally important factor is high cost.